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APICAL  CELL  MEMBRANE

CFTR is localized to the apical, rather than the basolateral, cell membrane of epithelial cells.   

Methods such as FRAP can be used to study membranes.  Some newer methods include: Inelastic X-RAY scattering (can measure in-plane motions of lipid chains), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) (can measure angstrom-scale amplitude undulations of lipid bilayers), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) (tip can be functionalized with streptavidin and used to detect biotinylated phospholipid distributions), Single Molecule Imaging using fluorescence methods , Solid State NMR,  Surface Plasmon Resonance (membrane-protein interactions measured), Spin-label ESR (membrane protein interactions),